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Gaza ministry: Collaborator campaign a success

The Hamas government in Gaza on Sunday claimed that a recent campaign to target collaborators with Israel was a success, the interior ministry said.

Ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan told a press conference that all collaborators who handed themselves in during a month long amnesty are enjoying the guarantees promised at the start of the campaign.

On March 12, Hamas said it had a list of collaborators but offered a one-month amnesty for informers to give themselves up in return for leniency.

The campaign has now officially ended, Shahwan said, adding that a number of collaborators were detained during the crackdown.

"The security services are working on this issue with high focus and in secrecy. We are committed to all promises made by the security services for all collaborators who turned themselves in during the campaign," he added.

Security services in Gaza will continue to work to protect people and strengthen their ability face Israeli attacks, Shahwan said.

Muhammad Lafi, director of internal security in Gaza, told reporters that the campaign had achieved its goals, noting that Israeli intelligence activities had decreased along the northern Gaza border.

All collaborators who complete two-thirds of their sentence will be released early, he said, adding that two people have been sentenced to death on collaboration charges.

The execution charges will not be carried out in public, Lafi said, and clerics will be present.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights said Sunday that a 48-year-old civil servant was convicted of spying for an enemy entity by a Gaza court on Thursday, and sentenced to death by hanging.

Under Palestinian law, collaboration with Israel is punishable by death.

Gaza courts have handed out over 30 death sentences since 2007, many of them to people convicted of helping Israeli security forces.

All execution orders must be approved by the president before they can be carried out, but Hamas no longer recognizes the legitimacy of incumbent Mahmoud Abbas, whose four-year term ended in 2009.

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